Fruit, Honey and Coconut Energy Bars

Why pay almost $3 or $4 for an overpriced box of trail mix-style bars when you can make your own easily? A 6 ounce bag of puffed brown rice cereal goes for 80 cents at our local supermarket, and 6 ounces is a lot of puffed rice! You can use natural, low-sugar or low-fat peanut butters, use raisins instead of dried cherries or substitute chocolate or carob chips for the coconut (or include everything you can!). In addition to the sunflower seeds, I like to add sesame seeds for extra crunch as well.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1  cup peanut butter (or experiment with almond butter, too)
• 1⁄2 cup honey
• 1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄3 cup sunflower seeds
• 2⁄3 cup dried cherries or 2⁄3 cup dried cranberries or 2⁄3 cup raisins (or a combination)
• 3  tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1⁄3 cup  shredded coconut
• 3  cups  puffed brown rice cereal
•  butter, to grease pan

• Other optional ingredients

•  chocolate or  carob chips (optional)
•  sliced almonds (other nuts are a little too oily for this) (optional)

Directions

1. Grease an 8x8 pan with a little butter.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, honey and vanilla extract until well-combined.
3. Add the sunflower seeds, dried fruit, sesame seeds and coconut and combine thoroughly with the peanut butter mixture.
4. Gradually add the puffed brown rice cereal to this.
5. This is where a child comes in handy-- this step is gooey and messy and best mixed with your hands- and kids love stuff like that.
6. Firmly press the mixture into the prepared 8x8 pan; you'll need to wet your hands slightly, otherwise the mixture just sticks to them.
7. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours, then cut and serve.
8. They're very rich!